226 AMERICAN FARMS. 



The merest glance at the subject is sufficient to show 

 that the whole world is growing gregarious with alarming 

 rapidity ; that the rural life is viewed with more and 

 more aversion. The cities of France — an old country — 

 in 1848 represented 34 per cent, of the entire popula- 

 tion ; a proportion, however, which grew to -^^ per cent, 

 in 1886. Beautiful rural France, with all its charms, 

 then, fails to retain its due proportion of the people. 

 Germany, since 1867, has increased her urban popula- 

 tion at the rate of a little over i| per cent, per annum ; 

 the rural population in the same period increased at the 

 rate of only \ per cent, per annum. In parts of rural- 

 Italy, every means is being devised by the farmer to ex- 

 change country for city life. But of all the world this 

 tendency is more marked in America than elsewhere. 

 Had the in^ease of persons engaged in agriculture, in 

 the decade ending with 1880, been equal to the average 

 entire increase of population, there would have been 

 42,341 more engaged in this pursuit than were so found. 

 In the same period, 1,147,977 represented the propor- 

 tional increase of those in the professional services, 

 trade, transportation, mining, manufacturing, and me- 

 chanical pursuits. The same movements are taking 

 place in Canada. Of the province of Nova Scotia, we 

 find that in the period 1861-81, the agricultural class 

 fell behind the professional and trading classes, in pro- 

 portional increase, over 20,000. 



The cities and city occupations are evidently drawing 

 the people to themselves. In 1790, the urban population 

 of the United States was only "i.^^ per cent, of the total ; 

 in 1850, 12.5 per cent. ; but in 18S0 it had reached 22.5 

 per cent. The Canadian census returns for 1881 re- 

 ported an increase of 33.0 per cent, in the growth of the 



